Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Hon'ble Governor of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana State Shri E. S. L. Narasimhan has presented 'Dak Seva' Awards for the year 2013 and 2014 to postal employees of AP Circle in a colourful function held at Indira Priyadarshani Auditorium, Hyderabad on 4/8/2015.

“You have no idea the sentimental value that a three and a half decades-old letter from my brother has and how it feels now, especially considering that a bomb blast took his life a day after I got the letter by post.”

These words ushered in pin-drop silence in the Indira Priyadarshini auditorium, coming as they did, from Governor of Andhra Pradesh & Telangana, E.S.L. Narasimhan, at the ‘Dak Sewa’ Awards ceremony on Tuesday.

Asked for details, he told this correspondent that it happened in 1981, when he was in Moscow on training as an Indian Police Service officer, while his brother was in the Indian Administrative Service, working on an assignment in Jorhat, Assam. The latter had just occupied his chair in his chambers when a bomb planted beneath went off, Mr. Narasimhan said, his eyes turning moist.

Addressing the impressive gathering, he said that despite the strides on the information andcommunication technology front and though he himself uses a lot of technology in his daily life, he was very conservative on several counts. “Notwithstanding the advent of technology, the Postal Department is the most dependable, efficient. WhatsApp may give you texts and pictures instantly, but post brings you the personal touch,” he said, to thunderous applause.

“Please restore the human touch to several services of yours that is sadly missing today,” he asked the Chief Post-Master General (AP & Telangana), B.V. Sudhakar and senior officials present. Continuing in the same vein, he said it was simply amazing how a postman found addresses that were nowhere on display, and again surprised the audience, saying “I find the postman akin to God.”

Mr. Narasimhan had a caustic word for the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation. “I urge GHMC to take up the task have signboards indicating roads and addresses all over the twin cities, first and foremost.

Earlier, Mr. Sudhakar outlined several initiatives that the Department had taken in AP and Telangana and how they were being replicated in other postal circles across the country. “Contrary to popular perception that the numbers are on the wane, our postmen made 19 lakh deliveries in 2013-14 and it went up to 21.5 lakh in 2015, representing a growth of 18 per cent that is more than the industry average. On the efficiency of SpeedPost, he said it went up from 67 per cent in March, 2013 to a whopping 97 per cent in June, 2015,” he said, summing up.

Towards the close, Post-Master General (PMG), Vijayawada, M. Sampath presented Mr. Narasimhan a philatelic album and while PMG-Visakhapatnam, Sarada Sampath gave him a pictorial postcard, PMG-Business Development gifted him a ‘My Stamp’ with his photograph on it.